Valerie Marks

I decided to make a sim from a randomized one, and just go with whatever. This meant I came up with the idea as I went along. At first she was a blonde bimbo, then I tried to go with a gothic doll with black hair and red highlights, then I switched to purple, and then decided that pink would be adorable (since it's my favorite color, after all). When I was finished with her clothes, the heart on her tee inspired me to go with a hopeless romantic, musical, artsy film-star. I was going to name her Valentina, but that's so cliche. So here is Valerie, in all of her splendor:

I think she's adorable. Don't be afraid to comment, I like feedback.

The American Dream: Janet, Benjamin, and Maria Brown

For decades, families have worried about finding the "True American Dream," but what exactly is the American dream? What is the perfect family?
For even longer, the African American population of the United States has fought to get there.

Thankfully, thanks to the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln, and many of the movements including Martin Luther King, Jr. and other freedom leaders, the "American Dream" is possible to everyone. By everyone, I mean, black, white, Asian, Jewish, gay, straight, etc. Or so we may think.
One thing I've noticed is that our country likes to go to the aid of other countries in times of need. This isn't a bad thing, until you look at the U.S. itself. Many of the United States are in poverty, our economy is dropping, and the greedy politicians and rich guys aren't doing anything to help. I realize they are doing what they can, but are they being smart about it?
In Wisconsin, Walker put an end to collective bargaining for public workers. While this may help the economy in some ways (I haven't seen any changes), was it really right to take it away from the public workers? The guys that work their asses off for the community? If Walker and the rest of his greedy political buddies would take a bit off their paycheck every month to do something to better the economy, they wouldn't need to take money away from teachers and other public workers. But, no, that's unheard of! Think, though, these are the idiots that can afford 4 cars, a nice house, and a vacation house, and have extra to grab themselves the most expensive plasma screen T.V.'s on the self, install an indoor swimming pool, and have jacuzzis in their bathrooms. I may be exaggerating a bit, but do you see where I'm going? Why take away from those who can barely afford their house, when you can take a loss yourself and help even more? In fact, with that paycheck, they could afford to lose half of it and still pay for all four cars.
This is why we have no freedom to live the lives we want to live. I would like to go to college in Chicago for performing arts. Will I be able to afford it? Will my parents be able to help? No, and no. Why? Because the idiots trying to end poverty are doing it wrong. My family just went two weeks without a paycheck from my dad's work. We now know what it's like to get free lunches from school and survive off of cereal and ramen at home. Yay for scholarships? (even though I never win anything, scholarships will probably be way out of my range of luck.)

This all being said, our country is becoming more like a nightmare than a country of freedom. I'm not saying other countries are any better, but why are we running to their aid when we still have people here who are worse off? We have our own political issues to take care of, our own people to take care of, why aren't we doing it? Because the government is greedy. I'm afraid to say any more.


The Sims:

Mother: Janet Brown
Traits: Natural cook, neat, good, family-oriented, bookworm
Stay-at-home-mom

Father: Benjamin Brown
Traits: Workaholic, genius, schmoozer, charismatic, computer whiz
CEO of a mega-corporation

Daughter: Maria Brown
Traits: Neat, genius, friendly
A+ honor roll student.

The stereotypical "perfect" family.